This morning's Daily Journal of Commerce highlights the Portland Housing Bureau's efforts to move forward on a long-planned veterans' housing project in the South Waterfront District. Reporter Nathalie Weinstein spoke with PHB Director Margaret Van Vliet about next steps for The Tamarack, a project planned for Block 49.

The South Waterfront District was meant to host hundreds of affordable housing units, but so far none have materialized. "I can't explain the past 11 years," before arriving as the new Portland Housing Bureau's first Director, Van Vliet told Sarah Mirk in this morning's Portland Mercury. "I am very intent on getting some affordable housing in that district."

Construction was set to begin on the Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects project in the summer of 2008, but a lack of private financing, thanks to the recession, has delayed the project.

Financing hurdles have proven more problematic. Director Van Vliet hopes to use $23 million in tax increment financing (TIF) available from the Central City Urban Renewal Area to close the gap, and to see construction